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Assume v. Presume

The word combustant was rejected on a tv show as not a word. Having used it since school days, I was surprised. Is that really true? I have always used it as a noun, one of the things that burns.
 
Mike0001 said:
The word combustant was rejected on a tv show as not a word.
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Not a word I've come across. It looks real. The definition seems right. But I can find no evidence of such a word. Could be a portmanteau word obtained from combustible and reactant. :unsure:
 
Mike0001 said:
The word combustant was rejected on a tv show as not a word. Having used it since school days, I was surprised. Is that really true? I have always used it as a noun, one of the things that burns.
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Can't have been Countdown - too many letters!
 
From a brief poke around with Google my impression is that combustant may refer to oxygen. The fire triangle almost invariably refers to fuel, oxygen and heat (source of ignition). It is the fuel which burns, ie is combustible.
Combustant certainly seems to be ill-defined, either by dictionary or common examples of use, so I would hesitate to use it on the basis that I might not be understood correctly. In which case I'd have to agree that it isn't a valid word.
 
MikeSh said:
Combustant certainly seems to be ill-defined, either by dictionary or common examples of use, so I would hesitate to use it on the basis that I might not be understood correctly.
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If Mike0001 had just dropped the word into a conversation, without questioning the validity, I would have guessed his definition at #2742.
Black Hole said:
Google* makes Pointless viable. Imagine trying to research the questions without it!
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Just not from Richard Osman's fake computer.
 
Black Hole said:
They are usually very specific about what constitutes a valid answer.
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Like being in some dictionary? I am sure you would approve of that criterion, plus the dictionary definitions of all the words too.:whistling:

I am beginning to think that combustant is either a technical term not in mainstream dictionaries, or else an excellent new word which just didn't catch on

PS Does this forum get indexed by Google? If so, it will pick up the word in its searches. There are several occurrences already, but many more now in this thread!
 
Mike0001 said:
PS Does this forum get indexed by Google? If so, it will pick up the word in its searches. There are several occurrences already, but many more now in this thread!
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There are some references to this site in the Google index, but nothing on this topic. Just searching with "site:hummy.tv" doesn't return many recent results.
The order of the items returned from the Google search has changed over the last few days. I'm beginning to think your searches have bumped some items up the list. Didn't find the Digital Spy item near the top when I first looked. Same with all those books.google results.
 
Mike0001 said:
Like being in some dictionary? I am sure you would approve of that criterion, plus the dictionary definitions of all the words too.:whistling:
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In the under-the-microscope forum of AvP - of course not, but when trying to guess words that appear in some secret master list it is as well to be clear what the selection criteria are.
 
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